The OKC Thunder Have 1 Major Problem

The OKC Thunder Have 1 Major Problem

What’s the word y’all yok C Thunder just added another really big win to their resume and all season long I’ve been watching the Thunder they’re like my favorite team to watch for multiple multiple reasons and I see a team that is a contender in there but in the back

Of my mind I think about their youth as of right now of course as you know they are the fourth youngest team in basketball fourth youngest team and look at who’s around the Pistons are not good the Spurs are not good yeah I’m I’m being nice the Trailblazers is not good

And then obviously we’re talking about one seat the magic are a good basketball team the Jazz maybe not so much anymore but these teams that they are around they are leagues and leagues ahead of and I know this it’s not rare this like you’ve probably seen this talking point

Multiple multiple times throughout the season will their inexperience matter because if you just close your eyes and look past the fact that they are all super super young they have all the the make for a team that that could win an NBA championship they have a superstar Point Blank period winning an NBA

Championship you need to have a superstar more times than not they have that in Shay gilis Alexander they have Elite level shooting they are third in the association in three-point percentage only behind the Clippers and the Minnesota Timberwolves they have an elite level defense fourth in the association at this moment they have

Great depth and they’re well coached what much more can you ask for for a championship contending team then again you think about the fact that there’s only a few players in their roster that have even played in the NBA playoff game and a game like last night versus the

Clippers showcased all of those things and I’m going break them down one by one first one sh Alexander gave us his prototypical stat line of of 31 points to some change 31 he always ends up a 31 I know that’s the meme but he was

Amazing um there was a game early in the season where they played against the Clippers and there was a lot of conversation about oh the Clippers might had a cryptonite to sh G Alexander they threw some bigger Defenders on him and he struggled where in this one it didn’t

Matter who was guarding him when he had kawhai when he had Paul George when he had Terence manah and didn’t matter Norman pow did a full 360 on a step back Shay got to his spots and Shay executed when he got there in this game they shot

17 of 35 from three all season long there’s there have been people saying and people speculating they we’re going to have some three-point shooting regression from the Thunders because they have too many people shooting career highs Lou Dort Lou Dort Lou Dort shot 30% from Three’s rookie season 34%

Sophomore then 32 then 33 and now he’s sitting at a smooth 39% on five attempts Shay G’s Alexander is getting closer and closer to getting back to that 4 41% three-point shooter we saw in his second year in OKC and if you look at his last 15 games he’s

Shooting 53% from three on three attempts I just don’t know how you guard him there CH hren almost 40% from three as a 7 foot1 rookie Center it goes on and on and on Aaron Wiggins is a guy that a lot of people said his jump shot

Was going to be one of the reasons why he may not be a full NBA player 51% from three Jay dub 45% Isaiah Joe 43% like I can’t believe K Wallace 41% the shooting regression has never come which maybe scares me a little bit because maybe it comes in April I I

Don’t know or maybe this is just who this team is right now the defense last night amazing now Paul George has been through a major major slump I think he’s shooting 20 something per from three in his last 15 games it’s it’s been kind of rough but they Paul George to 14 points

James hard in the 17 only 20 for Kawai even though it was an efficient 20 like they really defensively stepped up specifically in that third quarter where I think they had seven to eight blocks all of those felt like it was on zubach like the defense really ramped up and

That is the moment that they pulled away in this game well we got it where Chad Homer went to the bench and we get the small ball lineup of camage Williams and J and Josh giddy as the four and the five and they were everywhere arms everywhere steals layups three points

Shot trailer all of the defense was played and then we get the depth in this game in the first half Isaiah Joe scored z00 points in the first half none for some reason coach Mark day now and this goes hand in hand we talk about this

This coach and stuff coach Mark day now was like you know we’re going to start our third quarter with Isaiah Joe on the floor it had a lot to do with the way the Clippers were covering them the same way a lot of teams are going to cover

Them once they play against OKC and Josh gy on the floor he is a non threat to all teams across basketball so we’re going to guard him as a non-threat you know who’s a big threat Isaiah Joe and that third quarter Isaiah Joe hit some big time threes some big time cuts and

Play phenomenal defense on on the isolation with James Harden but Mark Daton all saw this guy who in this game was had zero points two fouls and two turnovers going into halftime and was like you know what he needs to start in this third quarter and that is the type

Of depth we talk about with OKC and the type of coaching we talk about with OKC not to mention in this one uh K Williams was everywhere when his minutes hit a big time Corner three got some Steals and so on and so forth and the depth is

Only going to get better because Gordon Hayward who played his first official game 13 minutes didn’t do much other than get a couple rebounds but we know Gordon Hayward once he starts to ease himself back into playing after that injury and then time off he’s going to

Provide some depth and they picked up bismack bomo who like the one of the major things other than the age thing um the other major thing around OKC is like man they’re going to get killed on the glass they’re a smaller team bismack bambo is if you know you know he’s he’s

Been a character on my channels um for years years and years and years but the the man is a good basketball player I guess he been up and down throughout his career but his last tenure in Memphis early this season um this stat right here is how many of the teams missed

Field goals in the half court did they rebound so how many offensive rebounds that the team give up with bizy was on the floor he was in a 94th percentile which means that hey you’re not getting an offensive rebound when I’m on the court again it’s been ups and downs the

Year before that at Phoenix it was awful but he’s had really good years and this is one of his really good years when it comes to rebounding or not allowing the opposing team to get rebound now obviously bizy is not a player that’s going to be closing out games he’s not a

Player that’s even going to play huge minutes but it’s just in those those mix minutes where he’s getting you 15 minutes a night in those 15 minutes when you’re you’re going super small you know what I’m saying I’ve even seen people talk about a secondary star I don’t know

If you been watching OKC like you you should be because they have that secondary secondary star I want to show you something now if you don’t know who I was referring to I was referring to Jaylen Williams he’s averaging 19 points per game four and a half four rebounds

50% from the field but this is I want to go to his last year his rookie season stats I want to show you something ridiculous so in his first month of his NBA career he averaged 10 points per game second month 12 points per game

Third month 13 then 15 then 20 and then you get the three games at the End season those don’t count those don’t count but in it his his last uh month last complete month as a rookie averaging 20 points per game right this year 15 points per game in the first

Couple games of the season then he went up to 18 then it was 19 then it was 20 and right now he’s in the midst of 23 points per game are you seeing the pattern about how much better this player has got from week one to week now

And it continues to get better and better and better and these fourth quarters that jayen Williams has been able to put together have been phenomenal right now he is 11th in the league and fourth quarter scoring in just nine minutes um and that’s 58% from the field 58% from three I mean he’s

Doing it you know fourth quarter jdb is real but for some people everything that I just talked about doesn’t matter because they’re super young and I I understand it right it’s rare and I mean extremely extremely rare that we see a team with zero playoff series wins jump

To title contender in one season so the best example we have that’s somewhat similar to this is OKC teams of last where in 2010 this team made it to the playoffs and lost in the first round to the Lakers then the year number two of being together they made it all the way

To the Conference Finals and the year number three of being together they made it to the finals and eventually lost now you can look at this a couple different ways um you can say that the current OKC team may not have have that first round

Exit like we saw the 2010 OKC team uh do but they do have postseason or a postseason appearance last year with them being in the playin does that count we don’t know the only other example I could think of at least in recent history is like an OKC a Warriors team

Of the past but it’s not a one toone parallel because the 2012 2013 Warriors even got to the second round and this is year three Steph Curry this is rookie Draymond Green and year one Klay Thompson the year after that they made it to the first round two and lost a

Seven to uh to the Clippers and then we saw them win a championship so they basically had three years of their Court together before they ended up winning the championship and I would say okay see this is really year one because chat is that impactful of a player you know

What I’m saying so it’s really just you’re one of them all coming together so it’s not great one toone parallels as far as these super young team being successful but we do see something that you can squint your eyes and say it’s similar now another one of the main

Things that’s going against OKC in this conversation is how ridiculous the western conference is the Western Conference is always ridiculous but particularly ridiculous this year so let’s say this is a snapshot let’s say the season were to end today right now they would have to play either the Suns

The Kings the Lakers and the warrior or The Warriors in the first round hello um uh Devon Booker is one of the best shooting guards of basketball if not the best in basketball Kevin Durant is still magnificent Bradley Bill if he’s healthy he’s still ridiculous this team has

Experience the Kings may not have a ton of experience with only one playoff uh series under their belt but that’s more than what OKC’s got right now obviously the Lakers won a championship four years ago and they have uh Anthony Davis and Braun and the Warriors have Steph Curry

Draymond and the remains of Klay Thompson so they’re going to be out matched on experience in all of these and I’m sure that if the if one of these series where to happen they’re going to be a lot of experts on TV or panelists they’re going to say hey this might be a

First round exit for the Oklahoma City Thunder but let’s say they do end up winning that round yes they did it and now they get to the second round guess what you got to go either against either the Clippers or the Mavs I mean you just

Beat the Clippers two times out of three um and then last time you played the maths they doged y’all but like it’s going to be a tough path unless say you get past them now you got to go against either the Nuggets or the Timberwolves in the Conference Finals and then if you

Get past one of them you got to go against one of these teams probably the Celtics probably the path could not be more difficult especially for a young team that hasn’t had to really get down to that nitty-gritty for a seven game series before I’m extremely excited to

See if they can do it I still don’t know if I put them as like one of the real contenders for everything I just said but I’m excited to figure out what’s right and what’s wrong

Despite a strong roster, the OKC Thunder still have one major problem. Can they overcome it and finally win an NBA Championship? Find out in this video analysis!

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